One Hundred Former Strikers Return to Steel Mill; Callon Oregon Steel to End Dispute.

Business Editors

PUEBLO, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000

The United Steelworkers of America today announced that Oregon Steel Mills, Inc. (NYSE: OS) and its CF&I Steel subsidiary, now doing business as Rocky Mountain Steel Mills (RMSM), is recalling about 100 of the

nearly one thousand steelworkers who went on strike almost three years ago to protest unfair labor practices at the plant. Terry Bonds, Director of USWA District 12, which covers the southwestern United States, said the company's action shows that the company cannot thrive without the veteran workers.

"It is more than thirty-one months since the Steelworkers ended the strike and made an unconditional offer to return to work. The market is now prompting the company to do what it could have done months ago: take some of us up on our offer. Now is the time for RMSM to reforge a relationship with its veteran workforce," said Bonds. "The company must use this new opportunity to obey the law, remedy its unfair labor practices as found by the NLRB Judge, put all our members back to work, and return to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair agreement so that we can help turn this company around."

Bonds said, "Shortly, more than 1,000 Pueblo families will mark the third anniversary of Oregon Steel's decision to illegally provoke a labor dispute. These workers walked off the job to protest the company's harassment, intimidation and other unlawful conduct, and to secure a contract that gave them relief from outrageous levels of forced overtime and provided a decent retirement after a lifetime of dangerous labor. Their judgment concerning the safety of the work has tragically been proven correct in the months since, as two workers lost their lives, one both his arms, another his foot, and yet another was scalded across his body."

Bonds pointed out that despite the current recall, several hundred former strikers still have not been reinstated because of the company's unlawful conduct, no new contract has been negotiated, and unsafe working conditions in the plant, which contributed to the strike, have not been corrected. "One hundred proud steelworkers will return to work in a plant they know is not safe," said Bonds. "They will do so with great reservations about their safety in what has been determined by OSHA to be the most dangerous industrial plant in the state. They are willing to return under these conditions, but have not forgotten what prompted their strike three years ago. This recall proves that the company can not live without these veteran steelworkers. Now the company must resolve the dispute and prove that they can live with these workers. Only meaningful collective bargaining --which can only occur if the company obeys the law-- will turn this recall into a permanent resolution."

Members of United Steelworkers Locals 2102 and 3267 went on strike against Oregon Steel's CF&I Steel subsidiary on October 3, 1997, to protest the company's unfair labor practices and substandard contract offer. When they ended their strike three months later, management unlawfully refused to reinstate the vast majority of Steelworkers to their jobs, exposing the company to a potential back-pay liability that could reach $300 million if litigated to the end of the appeals process.